He gave her a grin that melted her heart and some of her anger. “In this case, yes. I’d have it that way all the time if I thought you’d agree.”
“Not until you agree to the same,” she said with a sugary smile.
Colt just laughed.
He might have won this time, but it wouldn’t always be that way, and they both knew it.
• • •
Colt knew not to put too much hope in Kate’s agreement, but it was hard not to think that it meant something. That maybe they were on the same page for the first time. That maybe they understood each other now. That maybe there was a place for thought and consideration in the volatile emotional Molotov cocktail of their relationship.
He’d been angry at her for running the morning after in the hotel, but he understood it. His reaction to the adoption papers had been reflexive and less than ideal, but she’d surprised him. He’d realized kids might be in the future, but he hadn’t realized how immediate that future might be, and it had jellied him.
He’d needed time to get used to the idea.
But she’d been dodging him too long and getting shot last night had put everything in rather instant perspective. The clock was running and there was no telling when it would run out.
He’d planned to talk to her before he left, but it was Kate who cornered him as he was leaving the dining room where he, Taylor, Donovan, and the recently-arrived-with-laptop-in-hand Baylor had gathered for a makeshift op brief.
This was Taylor’s mission, but they all had opinions. He listened and decided on the straightforward course of action to present Murray with what they had and seewhat happened—in other words, light the fuse and wait for the explosion. It was what Colt would have done. Sometimes there wasn’t time or room for subtlety.
He supposed that could apply to him and Kate as well.
“I want to talk to you,” she said.
She turned and headed upstairs, which he took to mean that he was supposed to follow her.
She went into the master bedroom that she used to share with her former fiancé. Just the reminder made Colt’s blood heat and teeth grit. He didn’t like being in here. It made him feel as if he were crawling the damned walls.
“What is it?” he asked. “Did you find something on the laptop?”
“Proof that Natalie did try to send a message, but not who intercepted it. Brittany called Mac and she is on her way over. I hope she can find something while you are gone.”
Even if she didn’t, the general wasn’t going to know that.
“All right.” Colt made the mistake of looking at the nice king-sized bed and his mouth fell in a hard line. “What else?”
Kate’s composure slipped. She looked as if she was about to burst into tears. “What else? What do you mean, ‘what else?’! What’s wrong with you? I thought you wanted to talk but you’re acting like you can’t wait to get away from me.”
Colt swore. Crossing the distance between them, he pulled her into his arms. “It’s not you; it’s this damned room. I don’t like thinking about you and Lord Percy in here; it’s driving me nuts.”
He could feel her body relax against him. A small smile crept all the way up to her eyes, which started to twinkle. “Oh. I didn’t even think about it.” She tilted her head to study him in a way that made him want to shifthis feet and pull on the neck of his shirt. “I thought you weren’t going to get jealous anymore.”
“I’m not. This is me being evolved.” He looked down at her upturned face and the air seemed to squeeze right out of his lungs. He let the emotion rise up inside him rather than push it back down the way he used to. But, shit, it still scared him. She held his heart in her palm, and it made him feel vulnerable in a way he never had before. “I thought I was doing a good job.”
She laughed, and her eyes crinkled at the edges the way they used to a longlongtime ago. “You are. I just didn’t know what to look for. Next time you have the look of someone with Icy Hot in your jock, I’ll know what it means.”
He grimaced at the thought. That had happened to him once when he was the FNG (fucking new guy on the team) and the memory still made him wince with remembered pain.
“Next time?”
He knew he sounded too hopeful, but he couldn’t hold it back.
She nodded. “I was coming to tell you that you better come back with just one bullet hole in you because that’s all I can deal with right now.” She looked up at him, the emotion he’d never thought to see again shimmering in her eyes. “I was so scared, Colt. I thought I’d lost you again.”
Colt pulled her in tight, closing his eyes and letting his cheek rest on the top of her head. The feeling of overwhelming relief swept over him. She was going to give him another chance. He couldn’t believe it.
But he probably shouldn’t mention how much the one bullet hole hurt, and that he had no intention of adding to his pain tonight.
